Playbill presents A Wendy Weekend: Three Nights, Three Plays, All Wendy honoring what would have been Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Wendy Wasserstein’s 70th birthday on October 18. The weekend of readings in repertory, directed by Stan Zimmerman (“Gilmore Girls,” “The Golden Girls”), will include Uncommon Women and Others on Friday October 16 at 8PM ET, Isn’t It Romantic on Saturday October 17 at 8PM ET and The Heidi Chronicles on Sunday October 18 at 7PM ET. Each play will become available to view at the listed time and will remain available for viewing until the next play becomes available. Sunday’s event will also include a post-show talkback and will be available for viewing until Monday October 19 at 7pm ET.
UNCOMMON WOMEN AND OTHERS- Friday October 16 at 8PM ET
A group of friends—all alumnae of Mount Holyoke College (Wasserstein’s alma mater)—meet for lunch in 1978 (five years after graduation, for most of them). As they reminisce about their time on campus, we travel in time back to 1972-73 in a series as seven seniors and one freshman "discover themselves" in the wake of the feminist movement. One of Wasserstein’s early plays, she wrote Uncommon Women as her thesis project while at Yale. It enjoyed success on Broadway, launching the careers of Swoosie Kurtz and Glenn Close and was later made into a PBS movie with Meryl Streep.
The cast of Uncommon Women and Others includes Brittannie Bohman (“Left Behind”) as “Carter,” Andrea Bowen (“Desperate Housewives”) as “Kate,” Ian Buchanan ("The Bold and The Beautiful") as “Man,” Madeline Grey DeFreece (Tahara) as “Leilah,” Lucy DeVito (Hot Mess) as “Holly,” Chelsea Gonzalez (“The Mindy Project”) as “Samantha,” Kalinda Gray (Avenue Q) as “Women,” Lizzie Kramer as “Girl’s Voice,” Vanessa Marano (“Switched at Birth”) as “Muffet,” Melody Peng (“The Mindy Project”) as “Susie,” Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers) as “Mrs. Plumm” and Natalie Whittle (Meet & Greet) as “Rita.” Lauren Schaffel (Wait Until Dark) will read the stage directions.
ISN’T IT ROMANTIC- Saturday October 17 at 8PM ET
Janie Blumberg and her WASP friend, Harriet Cornwall, have graduated college and are ready to take on the world. But their post-college careers and personal lives are fraught with more problems than prosperity. Both struggle to escape lingering parental domination and to establish their own lives and identities in Manhattan in the early ’80s. And, as is still at the fore of the conversation today, Janie and Harriett (and their mothers) grapple with the concept of “having it all.”
The cast of Isn’t It Romantic includes Amanda Bearse (“Married... with Children”) as “Lillian,” Andrea Bowen as “Harriet,” Lucy DeVito as “Janie,” Ryan J. Duncan as “Hart Farrell,” Peggy Etra as “Operator,” Chris Farah as “Cynthia Peterson,” Andrew Fromer as “Captain Milty,” Danny Lee Gomez as “Paul,” Wendy Hammers (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) as “Tajlei Kaplan Singleberry,” Lizzie Kramer as “Child,” Jenny Lerner (“The Mindy Project”) as “Julie Stern,” Ken Lerner (“The Goldbergs”) as “Simon,” Michael Matts (“The Red Letter Plays”) as “Announcer,” Jon Sprik (At the Table) as “Vlad,” Mindy Sterling as “Tasha” and Raviv Ullman (Usual Girls) as “Marty.” Mindy Cohn (“The Facts of Life”) will read the stage directions.
THE HEIDI CHRONICLES- Sunday October 18 at 7PM ET (Talkback to follow)
Wasserstein’s most renowned play, The Heidi Chronicles, follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than 20 years later. From small meetings to mobilize to the feminist cause to lunches with these same ladies years on, The Heidi Chronicles exposed the internal battle many women feel as they balance desires for careers, friendships, and families; as they grapple with what it means and can mean to be a feminist; about marriage and motherhood; about belonging and betrayal. A smash Broadway hit at the time, Wasserstein won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1989 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The cast of The Heidi Chronicles includes Amanda Bearse as “April,” Taylor Bracken (Bachelorette) as TV Attendant/Voice,” Brittannie Bohman as “Becky,” Andrea Bowen as “Susan,” Madeline Grey DeFreece as “Molly,” Lucy DeVito as “Heidi,” Ryan J. Duncan as “Chris Boxer,” Chris Farah as “Debbie,” Danny Lee Gomez as “Peter,” Allie Gonino as “Lisa,” Wendy Hammers as “Sandra Zuckerhall,” Jenny Lerner as “Waitress,” Vanessa Marano as “Betsy,” Michael Matts as “Ray,” Melody Peng as “Denise,” Jon Sprik as “Mark,” Mindy Sterling as “Jill,” Raviv Ullman as “Scoop,” Natalie Whittle as “Fran” and Stan Zimmerman as “Master of Ceremonies, Voice at Dance.” Mindy Cohn will read the stage directions.
